Last week, in a precedent for Kenya's one-year-old government, the country's vice president, Moody Awori, cited that self-same reason as being behind a government decision not to follow the laid-down tendering procedures for a Ksh2.7 billion ($35 million) procurement deal for the Immigration Department, sparking a hue and cry in parliament. 

According to Awori, the government had awarded the contract under single-sourcing to the French firm Francis Charles Oberthur Fiduciare (FCOF) through financing arranged by Anglo Leasing and Finance Ltd because of security considerations, as well as the fact that they offered the best terms. 

Pleading his case before a largely sceptical parliament, Awori said that there was "no impropriety" in the project, pleading with MPs to allow his ministry to "give a new face" to the Immigration Department. 

Despite the assurances, the vice president's seven-page statement to parliament last week raised more questions than answers. 

First, "security reasons" should never be used to deny taxpayers their right to know how their money is being spent. Across the border in Uganda, for example, those reasons were cited even as the country was supplied with junk helicopters worth millions of dollars, and the army with decrepit trucks. 

True, the technical details or specifications of a security-related system or platform can be withheld, but in most democracies, classified information extends only as far as operational capabilities are concerned. Information on tendering and cost does not fall under this realm. 

In the circumstances, the fact that news of the billion-shilling immigration tender was broken to Kenyans by the press will forever mean that the whole deal, however well-meaning, will always have the whiff of corruption about it. It doesn't help, of course, that the initial cost of the tender was just $10 million. 

The foregoing is especially important given that security-related departments of the Kenyan government could in the near future embark on procurement deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

To quote just a few, the Air Force is long overdue in replacing its ageing fleet of Northrup F-5 fighter-bombers, while the army is said to have expressed a need to revamp its mechanised and armoured units. The police department has already given the Minister for Internal Security, Dr Chris Murungaru, a five-year shopping list worth over Ksh50 billion ($640 million). 

If "security reasons" are used to deny Kenyans information about the procurement details in such deals, then the ground will have been set for a repeat of the grand corruption that paralysed East Africa's once most robust economy. 

While it is not disputable, for example, that the Immigration Department needs new equipment and capabilities, one of the reasons advanced by Awori for the tripling of the budget for the immigration tender - that the new system will help check the entry of unwanted aliens into the country - does not just hold. 

Kenya's borders are not porous because the country's passports are easily forged. They are so because Immigration officers can be easily persuaded to look the other way for a few hundred shillings. Use of the new system will not have any effect if the factors that lead to this state of affairs are not first addressed. 
 

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